A Los Angeles Superior Court judge failed to rule on whether firefighters opposing the city’s vaccine mandate should be paid while proceeding through their due process hearings, according to an attorney who attended last week's hearing.
Judge Michael P. Linfield rejected a preliminary injunction requested by the nonprofit Firefighters4Freedom Foundation.
“I think the ruling was totally off the wall and that it absolutely conflated and mistook the issue that was in front of the judge,” said Kevin McBride, former counsel for the 105 firefighters. “They were suspended for not registering their vaccination status. The issue in front of the judge was should those firefighters receive pay during the due process hearing rights on the registration issue or not."
In the Dec. 21 ruling, Linfield wrote, “This Court does not want to minimize the harm to the individual firefighter who is placed on unpaid leave. It is certainly a severe harm. But it is dwarfed by the death of a person due to COVID. We can reimburse a person for monetary losses caused by being put on unpaid leave. We cannot resurrect the dead.”
The firefighter plaintiffs sued the City of Los Angeles on Sept. 17 challenging an order by the city council that required city employees to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 15.
“The issue had nothing to do with resurrecting the dead or transmitting COVID because these firefighters don't go to work,” McBride told the Southern California Record. “It's impossible for the firefighters to have any effect on the COVID exposure of the general public. The judge totally missed the issue and our side didn't do a good enough job of focusing him on the issue.”
Regarding whether he would appeal, attorney Scott Street, who represents Firefighters4Freedom Foundation, told the Southern California Record, “I am disappointed in the result and the analysis but this is just the beginning of the case and we expect to have a fair opportunity to litigate these issues in 2022 and that when all is said and done, the evidence will support us."
As of Dec. 25, there have been 1,511,160 COVID-19 cases and 26,096 COVID-19 deaths in Los Angeles County, excluding the cities of Long Beach and Pasadena, according to the state's COVID-19 dashboard.
"What the court should have looked at is what's the impact on these firefighters for going without pay versus what's the impact on the city financially for having to pay the firefighters their salaries while the hearing phases are in process," McBride added. "The judge completely conflated the two issues by emotionally saying 'We don't want any more COVID cases and that's more important than the firefighters getting paid.' The process is ongoing. It's completely confusing."